The Selfie Project
Due to the current lockdown, many of us are turning to social media to keep in contact.
I have seen so many social media posts sharing appreciation for the little things in life. Things like sunshine, fresh air, being able to spend quality time with our little families as well as for our homes themselves. Equally, I have seen so many people sharing their promises for when life gets back to normal. Primarily, not to take those people in our life for granted and to spend more time with our extended families and friends that we don’t see that often.
Well, the following project is inspired by such ethics.
The Selfie Project is a way of families, friends or even work colleagues, to connect, regardless of the distance and create something really special. A keepsake to remind them of a time when we were forced apart but remembered our love of being together. A memento of a time when we really appreciated the little things in life.
After all, we might all be part of one little unit but those add up to one big family. A family that should be celebrated.
The Selfie Project
We understand that in the current climate it’s not possible to meet clients and do photoshoots. So why not consider taking a different approach?
Offering a collage product of family selfies.
Everyone is on lockdown. Which means everyone is at home wondering how to fill their time with their nearest and dearest.
Everyone also has a phone. Which means that everyone has a camera.
Everyone (well, almost) has the Internet. Which means physical distance is basically irrelevant nowadays.
Can you see where I’m going with this?
Well, here’s the concept.
Someone (it’s normally mum, let’s be honest) organises the family selfie portraits. As the images are selfies, it doesn’t matter where each family unit is located. You could have images of grandma and grandpa in the local nursing home, the sister that lives in New Zealand, the cousins that live on the other side of the country or even include the family pooch chilling out in the garden!
Alternatively, if families can’t take a selfie they could always choose a favourite from Instagram or Facebook and use that instead. The main thing is that it’s a nice, happy picture of that particular family unit.
You, as the photographer, could provide a short guide to taking a decent selfie. For example, “make sure you show everyone from the shoulders up, check the tops of heads are in, try to all use a light or dark background and look at the camera, not the screen…” etc, etc. This should ensure a great selfie of everyone involved and that all the selfies look cohesive when displayed together. We are in an arty industry after all people!
Once each family has taken their selfie (or chosen one from the past), the organiser (A.K.A mum) collects them all and uploads them to your website. This can easily be organised using a visitor multi-upload page.
You can then balance the colour, brightness, contrast etc of the images so that they are spot on. This could either be done using a photo editing software such as Photoshop or in the collage feature itself.
Not only would this make a lovely pick-me-up gift at this current time in our lives, but would also make a really thoughtful Easter present. Much more thoughtful than chocolate. Although I’m still very much pro-chocolate and think both would go nicely hand in hand. Just saying.
Important Details You Should Know
The collages have been designed to sell on a 10 x 10 or 12 x 12-inch print. However, if you are self-fulfilling you could add MDF blocks, canvases and other products to the price plan.
We have added a profit into the price plan so that if you are selling products to families everything is already done for you. However, you can either reduce the profit or edit the page to advise that a certain percentage goes to a local charity (we will leave that up to you).
This would be a lovely idea if you decided to focus on groups as well as families. For example, photographing people through nursing home windows, NHS staff and other key workers. It would be a great way to give back something to the communities that are working so hard to look after us!
Make sure you use #theselfieprojectuk so we can see you too!
